Jury finds Elon Musk misled investors during Twitter purchase, absolves him of some fraud claims

A jury in San Francisco has determined that Elon Musk defrauded investors by intentionally driving down Twitter’s stock price in the months leading up to his $44 billion acquisition of the company in 2022. However, the jury absolved him of intentionally scheming to mislead investors. The civil trial centered on whether Musk’s tweets and podcast comments in May 2022 intentionally misled shareholders, leading them to sell their shares.

The jury found Musk liable for misleading statements in two tweets, including one stating the deal was “temporarily on hold,” but not for a statement made on a podcast, deeming it an opinion. Damages were awarded to shareholders, totaling approximately $2.1 billion in stock and $500 million in options. Musk’s legal team plans to appeal, citing previous victories and arguing the verdict is a “bump in the road.”

The trial heavily focused on Musk’s claims regarding the number of bot accounts on Twitter, which he used as justification to attempt to withdraw from the purchase agreement. Despite initially trying to back out of the deal, Musk ultimately honored the original agreement. Legal experts suggest the verdict underscores the accountability for statements that impact the market, especially with the speed and scale of social media.

(Source：Daily Excelsior)